


A Gentle Tether

by likehandlingroses



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 09:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14691126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likehandlingroses/pseuds/likehandlingroses
Summary: Just as darkness poses its greatest threat to Rumple yet, he finds himself called back by the arrival of his two sons.





	A Gentle Tether

“Papa!”

The word tore Rumple away from his spinning, away from the timeless, shapeless void he sought when the real world grew too hostile. As he drew back into his center, both his sons came into focus. Their faces of horror were enough to remind Rumple of where he was. What he was.

Rumple ducked his head in shame, as if that could hide him from them. A single pair of footsteps–Gideon’s, Rumple could guess–came forward and knelt beside him.

“Papa…” The pity in Gideon’s voice threatened to sink Rumple into the ground. He took some small comfort in the fact that Gideon took his claw of a hand into his own without hesitation or revulsion. Rumple wished he could find something comforting, something reassuring, to say. But his mind was getting duller by the day, and the words wouldn’t come.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” he whispered. “You aren’t supposed to see, you were never supposed to see.”

Rumple looked up at Neal, who remained rooted to the floor at the entrance of the cabin. “And he…he still remembers and wishes he didn’t,” he murmured to himself.

“Where’s Mother?” Gideon asked.

“She’s away. And she’s here,” Rumple said, gesturing to the glass ball on the windowsill that held Belle’s image, showed her every move, as she searched for a way to stop the sudden spike of darkness threatening Rumple’s heart. “I couldn’t follow.”

“Why didn’t she tell me?” Gideon said, his voice soft but pained. “Why didn’t you tell–”

“–you should have said something.” Neal finally moved from his spot in the doorway, and Rumple could feel his anger pulsing through the room. “You can’t be here alone like this; it’s not right. And it’s not fair! Especially to him.”

Neal gestured to Gideon, his voice rising. “He’s driving himself crazy sitting at a desk while his parents are off doing God knows what. Because he thinks that’s what you want, and if it kills him to do it, he will. If it kills all of you to do it, he will. It’s insane; this entire thing is insanity from beginning to end.”

He was right; Rumple knew that, now. Gideon’s coloring had turned wan, and Rumple could sense a careworn aura about him that had never been there before. In trying to protect him, he’d driven his son to an existence of cloistered anxiety. Nevertheless, Gideon looked more upset with his brother than he did Rumple, and he glared at Neal with an uncharacteristic anger.

“Don’t shout at him,” he said.

“I wasn’t shouting,” Neal retorted. “They needed help, and they should have asked for it.”

“Well, it doesn’t do any good getting angry now, does it? Can’t you see he’s not well?”

To Rumple’s surprise, Neal nodded, looking a bit pink in the cheeks. He loved fiercely, and that love had a tendency to push him to frustration when he sensed a threat. Gideon had a gentler touch, and there were times the two of them didn’t know what to do with each other.

The room fell into silence as Neal looked around.

“Is this all you have?” he said, opening one of the cupboards and finding only a few slices of salted meat and some dry oats.

“I don’t need much,” Rumple said.

“Well, I do.” Neal shut the cupboard and sighed. “Here, you wait with him…I’m gonna figure this food situation out.”

He was leaving to gain his bearings again. Because he was afraid, because he was angry, because he loved too deeply to sit still…Rumple couldn’t always tell with him. All he knew was that ever since he was small, his Baelfire had rushed into the world when his own thoughts became too difficult.

“He’s always had a weight about him,” he said to Gideon, who hadn’t yet moved away from his father’s side and still looked shaken from the brief altercation with his brother. “Down to earth, they call it. Not like me. I’d have floated away if it weren’t for him. I still might.”

Gideon gave a hint of a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. With him, Rumple always knew. They shared something of the same spirit. Rumple squeezed his hand. “And you’d come with me, wouldn’t you?”

This time, the light came closer to Gideon’s eyes.

“Of course I would.”

**Author's Note:**

> How are Bae and Gideon both alive and *roughly* the same age? Because I wanted them to be for the purpose of the story! Thanks for understanding! And thank you so much for reading. :D


End file.
